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SERMON, 
CHARGE, RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP, 

AND 

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE: 
AT THE INSTALLATION 

OF 

REV. CHARLES LOWE, 

AS PASTOR OF THE 

NORTH CHURCH IN SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 

SFPTEMBER 27, 1855. 

piblisljeb bg Request 
SALEM : 

PRINTED AT THE OBSERVER OFFICE. 
1855, 



Jfra Igcncn nub literal InaMIitg Ivccontilcb : 

A 

SERMON 

PREACHED AT THE INSTALLATION 

OF 

REV. CHARLES LOWE, 

AS PASTOR OF THE 

NORTH CHURCH IN SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS, 

SEPTEMBER 27, 1855. 
BY ANDREW P. PEABODY, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE SOUTH CHURCH IN PORTSMOUTH, N. II. 

^ubltsbeti i)g Request. 
SALEM : 

PRINTED AT THE OBSERVER OFFICE. 
1855. 

9 



To Rev. Andrew P. Peabody : 
Dear Sir : 

The Proprietors of the North Me c ting-House in Salem, 
feeling under deep obligation to you for the kindness with which you 
consented to assist in the services at the Installation of Rev. Mr. Lowe 
as our Pastor, and having been thoroughly impressed with the wisdom, 
ability and eloquence of your discourse, we beg of you the favor of a 
copy for publication. 

Respectfully, 

E. K. LAKEMAN. AUGUSTUS PERRY. 

GEO. WHEATLAND. C. FOOTE. 
JEREMIAH PAGE. 

Salem, Sept. 28, 1855. 



Portsmouth, X. IL, Oct. 1, 1855. 

Gentlemen : 

Your kind appreciation of the Sermon delivered at 
Rev. Mr. Lowe's Installation is, I fear, beyond the actual merit of 
the discourse, which has however at least the claim to regard, which 
an honest and earnest endeavor to elucidate a perplexed subject might 
confer. I cheerfully comply with your request to furnish a copy lor 
the press. 

I am, gentlemen, sincerely yours, 

A. P. PEA BODY. 

Messrs. E. K. Lakeman. Aug. Perrt. 
Geo. Wheatlaxd- C. Foote. 
Jeremiah Page. 



f 



S E K M 0 N 



JOHN VI. 44. 

No MAN CAN COME TO ME, EXCEPT THE FATHER WHICH HATH SENT ME 
DRAW HIM. 

At first thought this text would seem almost to preclude 
the need, and to deny the utility of a gospel ministry. Yet in 
unfolding the sentiment which it conveys, we may find that, 
while it limits, it guides, — while in some directions it narrows, 
in others it intensifies and exalts the preacher's functions ; and 
that it attaches the highest sanctity to his office, making it 
literally what it has been our wont to call it, an embassy from 
heaven to earth. It represents a sentiment which runs through 
the whole of the Old and New Testament, namely, man's ina- 
bility to make himself -what he needs and ought to be. Yet 
but a little while before, Jesus had said, " Ye will not come 
unto me that ye might have life," as if the negligence were in 
the strictest sense voluntary and blameworthy. In correspon- 
dence with this text also there are in the Old and New Testa- 
ment very many others, which imply man's unrestricted ability 
to be and to do all that God would have him be and do. The 
Scriptures therefore are chargeable in full with the inconsis- 
tency and absurdity of this self-contradiction, if self-contradic- 
tion it be. But we may find that these two classes of scriptural 
declarations only represent opposite poles of human nature as 
verified by our own experience, — that, if we analyze our con- 



6 

sciousness, we shall discern traces both of natural freedom and 
of moral inability. And we may find too that the Bible 
stretches the connecting wire from pole to pole, and harmonizes 
the conflicting principles which it enunciates side by side. 

Our superficial consciousness assures us that we are free 
agents. But how much do we mean by this ? Simply, that 
the executive powers of the mind and body are at the command 
of the will ; that we can, through the force of the will, govern 
our thoughts, determine our pursuits and regulate our actions ; 
in fine, that, within their own scope and sphere, our wills 
exercise a sovereignty not unworthy to be compared with that 
of the Omnipotent will over the universe at large. But the 
will, — is that free? Can you control its action? Can you 
arrest its gravitation ? Can you bend it even to your convic- 
tions of expediency, of right, of duty ? Is it not determined 
by laws and impulses which lie not under your immediate 
command ? 

I will suppose a case. There is, I will suppose, in this city, 
a certain amount of destitution and suffering, — an amount so 
great that it can be relieved only by the personal effort and 
sacrifice of all who are in a prosperous condition. Now, in the 
popular sense of the words, you are all able to make the 
required effort and sacrifice. But I apprehend that there may 
be some of you who cannot will to be thus charitable, — some 
who, in such a case, with a clear conviction of the duty of 
charity, and with sincere approval of the relief bestowed by 
others, would give and do nothing or next to nothing, because 
their wills were crippled by invincible indolence or selfishness. 

To take another instance. I will suppose opportunity for 
the unrestrained indulgence of some vicious appetite placed 
before all of you in forms that would be tempting to the lower 
nature of every one of you, I will suppose every motive of 



7 



shame removed, every earthly inducement to abstinence with- 
drawn. In the popular sense of the words, you are all capable 
of this excess, and would derive temporary pleasure from it. 
Yet there are some of you, who could not will to indulge in it. 
There are some of you, in whom moral, Christian principle 
would be so strong as to constrain your wills — -no matter how 
fierce the temptation — within the laws of purity, temperance 
and sobriety. Thus, though you are free agents, your wills are 
not free ; for there are things, which you are able to do, yet 
which you are incapable of willing. 

But, you ask, is not happiness the universal aim 7 And 
must we not of necesssity will what we suppose most directly 
conducive to our happiness ? I answer, No. Among the my- 
riads in Christendom who are daily steeped in foul and enor- 
mous guilt, there are thousands, who are conscious of being 
made perpetually wretched by their guilt, — thousands too, 
who, believing in the sternest theological dogmas, have no 
doubt that every step they take in vice and crime is drawing 
them nearer the brink of eternal perdition. Yet they cannot 
will to arrest themselves on this ruinous career. 

When we assume that man always pursues his highest idea 
of happiness, we forget his mixed nature. Were we wholly 
animal beings, the highest animal enjoyment would be our 
legitimate object, and would furnish the sole motive to our 
wills ; and, though we might sometimes commit a mistake, we 
could never sin. Were we purely spiritual beings, goodness 
would be the sole end of our existence, and would alone give 
impulse to our wills ; and in that case also we should be 
incapable of sinning. But our animal natures have enjoyment 
for their supreme end ; our spiritual natures have goodness for 
their supreme end • and the two coincide but partially. One 
must often be sacrificed to the other, The highest animal en- 



8 



joyment finds itself circumscribed and checked by the claims of 
goodness; goodness is interfered with by various tempting 
forms of animal enjoyment, and by the means of securing such 
enjoyment in the future. The will is directed toward one or 
the other of these ends, and is determined, not by the absolute- 
ly strongest motive, but by the strongest motive in the direc- 
tion toward which the will tends. Thus this man's will is de- 
termined by the pleasure, Or the acquisition subsidary to pleas- 
ure, which lies nearest at hand; that man's, by the opportunity 
of duty which lies nearest at hand. Neither can possibly will 
what the other wills, except within the limited space in which 
pleasure and duty run upon the same track, and even within 
that space it is simply the nominal and formal, not the actual 
objects of their volition that are the same. Now these two con- 
ditions of the will, considered as habitual, indicate two essen- 
tially unlike types of character, designated in the Scriptures as 
"the carnal mind" and the spiritual mind, or as those " who 
walk after the flesh" and those " who walk after the spirit ;" 
and those who belong to one of these types are not at this or at 
any moment capable of assuming the other by a self-constrain- 
ing resolve or inward act. 

Yet characters are changed; wills assume new directions; entire 
moral transformations are effected. And how are they effected ? 
So far as we can trace their causes, by action from without, — by 
the action of mind and spirit upon mind and spirit. All great 
moral changes are effected from without. That such is the case 
with individuals is rendered probable by the uniform prevalence 
of this law as regards communities and nations. If individuals 
could change their own character, they could by their collec- 
tive manifestation change the character of the bodies politic to 
which they belong. But this has never yet been done. Civili- 
zation is a moral process, — not mere material development, but 



9 



the development of those moral faculties and sentiments, which 
subdue the asperity, refine the grossness and adorn the rude- 
ness of social life ; and it is an axiom among historians that no 
nation ever civilized itself. Nay, so entirely does history fail 
to trace the origin of civilization, and, as it gropes in the remo- 
test antiquity, so bewildered is it, not by gathering shadows, 
but by luminous corruscations as from a primeval paradise, as 
to attach the highest probability to the theory that the elements 
of ancient civilization were derived from God and heaven, — the 
patrimony with which the eternal Father endowed his children 
in the very infancy of the race. There was before Christ a 
certain type and measure of civilization, which we can trace 
back as far as history goes, — which indeed changed its seat, 
and varied its forms to suit the conditions of soil and climate, 
but which, there is reason to believe, had attained as high a 
summit-level in Egypt in the days of Abraham, as that at 
which it stood in Rome in the age of Julius Caesar. It was 
transferred to new localities, when natives of an already civili- 
zed country colonized or subjugated a barbarous coast or island? 
and by familiar communication raised the barbarous inhabitants 
to their own standard. It deserted its old seats, when barba- 
rians poured in, with overwhelming numbers, on the civilized 
kingdom drained by emigration, and reduced the native inhab- 
itants to their standard. 

Christianity — by direct communication from heaven, and by 
a Divine impulse that had not spent its supernatural force till a 
Christian emperor sat upon the throne of the Caesars — created 
in the Roman empire a new, and, unlike the ancient, a progres- 
sive type of civilization ; and that type has in no instance been 
adopted or repudiated by a nation or community, — has in no 
instance grown up or passed away in a nation or community 
without an organic change in the constituent elements of its 
population. On the one hand, in some cases emigration or 
2 



10 



conquest by a Christian nation has civilized a Pagan nation ; 
and in some cases, as in southern Europe, Pagan invaders, 
stronger only in arms, but less numerous and with less com- 
pactness and vitality than the invaded people, have become 
incorporated with them, and received the germs of Christian 
civilization from them. On the other hand, in Asia, once 
Christian communities have been flooded by the overpowering 
numbers and the more vigorous life of Mohammedan invaders, 
and have sunk to their immeasurably lower standard of civili- 
zation. 

The same principle is constantly verifying itself before our 
eyes in the formation and the transformation of individual 
character. Character is formed not by books, nor by conven- 
tional standards, nor by public opinion, but by intimate associa- 
tion. The youth, whose lot is cast among the circumspect, 
honest and pure, seldom parts company with them. On the 
other hand, all sources of corruption and depravation seem to 
resolve themselves into the one fountain head of evil influence, — 
bad company. And, what is peculiarly to the point as regards 
what I shall have to say hereafter, one cannot determine prima- 
rily what character he will form, but he can determine what 
society he will seek and cherish. Your son may go from you 
with pure habits, good resolutions, noble aims, yet if he is so 
circumstanced that his nearest associates are vicious and cor- 
rupt, and, if merely to satisfy his social cravings, yet with the 
intention of shunning their vices, he courts their intimacy, he 
can no more retain his good habits and fair character, than he 
can come dry from the ocean, or remain unburned in a burning 
house. He might have kept aloof from those companions ; he 
has no force of will, which can keep him unharmed if he makes 
them his intimates. 

Character then is formed, is transformed, by influence from 
without. This is the doctrine of the Bible, — the doctrine of 



11 



our text. " No man can come to me, except the Father which 
hath sent me draw him." These words simply confirm the 
results of all experience ; bring the ever present spirit of God 
into the circle of influences upon the human soul ; and declare, 
that, as character is formed and transformed only by action 
from without, so the highest type of character is created only 
by action from above, — by the action of God upon the soul of 
man. 

Your will, my friend, I will suppose, has an earthward di- 
rection. It seeks gratification, not goodness. Its objects are 
external, not spiritual. Its aim is outward, not moral attain- 
ment. It desires growth in substance, not in character, — the 
increase of what you have, not the enlargement and exaltation 
of what you are. You cannot change it, says the Bible, but 
God can. You cannot change it. If you could, you w T ould 
have clone so before now ; for you have had seasons of profound 
religious impression, — times when you were fully aware of the 
transcendent worth of spiritual objects, — times of bereavement, 
suffering or dread, when you have said to yourself, " 0 that I 
were a Christian," and when, could you have changed the direc- 
tion of your will by a momentary inward act, you would have 
done so. But your thoughts at such seasons have been but as 
a mere pebble against the stream. At the very moment when 
they were the strongest, had there been impending some test- 
duty that demanded effort or sacrifice, your will would have 
been as lame, as if no such religious impressions had rested 
upon your soul. What then can you do ? You are bidden by 
the apostle to " work out your own salvation," and he tells 
you how, when he adds, "It is God which worketh in you 
both to will and to do of his good pleasure." You cannot by 
an arbitrary inward act change your character ; but you can 
choose your company, and, (if I may, without irreverence, ex- 
press the sublimest of facts in so familiar a form,) within the 



range of your choice is He, in whose hand are the hearts of all 
men. You may enter into an association, a communion with 
Him, which will change your character. You may place your- 
self under influences, which, because they flow from the Omni- 
potent, are absolutely irresistible. 

God has not cut himself off from the communion of his hu- 
man children ; and, as all duty has Him for its object, so can 
He inspire, create the will to perform all duty. He has reser- 
ved for himself in every human soul a shrine which no other 
being can enter, and from which he utters oracles that sway 
the will, mould the character, form the life. Of this shrine 
man holds the key ; and the key is prayer. It is at this point 
that man has power over his own character. It is with this 
lever that he can turn the golden gate of heaven. Prayer is 
not mere contemplation, not mere self-excitation ; but it has 
two real parties. It is not alone an efflux, but an influx also ; 
not alone a talking to, but a talking with the Almighty. It is 
the mode in which the finite spirit may enter into companion- 
ionship, into mutual relations with the Infinite Spirit. We 
hear not his words, nor is there need of ours ; for the most 
fervent, effectual prayer often is a groaning that cannot be ut- 
tered. But, however offered, if prayer go forth, sincere and 
earnest, the answer flows in every vein and artery of the spirit- 
ual circulation, runs along the whole nervous tissue of the soul, 
quickens the pulse of conscience, clarifies the inward vision, 
unseals the ear to the call of duty, and kindles the glowing 
respiration of a life in its very essence God-born and immortal. 

Thus interpreted, our text, so far from disheartening, en- 
courages the aspirant for goodness. Instead of leaving him 
passive, it tells him where to go, and what to do. c: No man 
cometh to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw 
him." Go then in prayer to Him, who will draw you Christ- 
ward and heavenward. Let the voice of your supplication be : 



13 



: ' Father, I cannot go to Christ, unless thou assume the control 
of my will, unless my heart be in thy hand to turn it whither- 
soever it may please thee. Draw thou me then by thine own 
sovereign love, by the sweetly constraining cords of thy grace, 
to Christ, to goodness, to holiness, to life eternal." 

I have chosen my subject as having a momentous bearing on 
the duty of the Christian ministry. The minister who means 
to be faithful may adopt one of two modes. He may bend his 
most strenuous effort against specific sins prevalent, social, na- 
tional, and in the advocacy of the specific measures of reform 
by which it is sought to put those sins away. Or he may di- 
rect his undivided energy to the renewal of individual charac- 
ter, — to the endeavor to awaken the spirit of prayer, to kindle 
the flame of piety, and thus to lead men to the Father that 
they may be drawn to Christ. During what little time I may 
yet occupy, permit me, in the light of the fundamental truth 
which I have now sought to unfold, to compare these two meth- 
ods. 

I maintain that the first of these methods will prove ineffi- 
cient even in the attainment of its own end, while that end and 
every other worthy aim of the gospel ministry can be the most 
effectually served by the last named method. A minister may 
appear in the pulpit as an ardent zealot for philanthropic causes 
of every name. He may fulminate sabbath after sabbath 
rebukes, denunciations and anathemas. In so doing he may 
produce excitement, arouse opposition, generate rival factions in 
his church, and keep the community around him in a perpetual 
fever. But he will probably effect no essential change in the 
position or character of a single soul, so long as Calvary is 
dwarfed by the shadow of Sinai, and the death-cry of redeem- 
ing love drowned in the thunders of the violated law. On the 
other hand, he may be behind the standard of the age as to all 



14 



philanthropic movements, and may say much less than it is his 
right and his duty to say as to the great evils and giant sins of 
our social and political organization ; yet, if he only holds forth 
the example, the love, the cross of Christ, and labors in his 
Master's spirit and in the dear love of souls, he may cherish a 
much higher type of practical piety than he urges, may form 
much more thoroughly trained Christians than he paints, and 
may recruit departments of philanthropic service of -which he 
takes no cognizance. 

Law of itself is pitifully feeble. It has no power to enforce 
its own dictates. The will is swayed by the emotional nature ; 
is swayed in the direction of duty only by the breath of prayer 
and the might of the indwelling God. It is only on the Delectable 
Mountains of contemplation and devotion that the cloud of the 
Divine presence rests, and the rain descends to fill the streams 
that are to make glad the city of our God. But in the utilita- 
rian tendencies of much of the preaching of our times the path 
up those mountains is left overgrown and inaccessible. The 
life hidden with Christ in God is ignored. Doing is insisted on 
more than being. Men are addressed as duty-doing machines, 
not as living and loving souls. The emotional part of religion, 
because it is unseen, is undervalued. Prayer, because it is for 
the Divine ear alone, is made secondary. Gratitude to God, 
because it does not perform a direct part in the routine of 
philanthropic effort, is subordinated to hand-work and tongue- 
work. The incense is scanted in the daily sacrifice ; the ala- 
baster box is bartered away for one of earthern ware ; and of 
the ointment of spikenard, fit only for a thank-offering, it is 
impatiently asked, " To what purpose is this waste ?" and de- 
manded that it be " sold for three hundred pence, and given to 
the poor." Yet it is the breath of incense alone, that can dis- 
infect the social atmosphere. It is the alabaster box alone, that 
can pour an unction from the Holy One on the labors of the 



15 



Reformer. It is the will to offer the ointment of spikenard, 
which alone can make philanthropy availing, or even possible. 

It was not without meaning that our Saviour put the first 
great commandment of the law before the second. It is always 
first in the order of time. Obedience to it alone can render the 
keeping of the second possible in any sense that is vital or effi- 
cient. Philanthropy must lay one hand on the altar, in order 
to dispense good gifts with the other hand. The chain, by 
which men are to be drawn from degradation and guilt, must 
have its purchase on the throne of God. The minister, who is 
the agent in leading a single soul to God and thus drawing it 
to Christ, — in forming a single Christian character worthy of 
the name, — has added a new force to the philanthropic energy 
of the community, has created a new centre of beneficent influ- 
ence, has done effective service to every cause of human pro- 
gress and well-being. The minister, who makes it his constant, 
earnest aim to establish the reign of Christ in individual hearts, 
is the most efficient of all philanthropists. The agents of the 
great enterprises of reform are indeed doing an important work, 
but one far less essential than his. They are digging channels 
for the streams, while he is enlarging, deepening, purifying the 
fountain. They may justly claim, they ought to have his un- 
disguised sympathy, his earnest Godspeed, his fervent interces- 
sion with the Father. But he must not drop his spade to 
take up theirs. He must not desert his higher post to labor 
side by side with them ; for, though the channels be dug, yet 
if the fountain is choked and miry, the soil might as well have 
remained undisturbed. 

The minister then is not to preach any gospel of to-day, but 
primarily and chiefly the gospel which is ' : the same yesterday, 
to-day and forever." Men are opposed to reform, because they 
love the world, and the love of the Father is not in them. 
They are just such sinners, as Jesus saw before him, when he 



16 



cried, " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand/* They 
need precisely the same treatment they did in the gospel times. 
They need to come to themselves, and to go to the Father. 
They need pungent exhibitions of the heinousness and the bitter 
fruits of sin, — faithful representations of God in Christ recon- 
ciling the world to himself. The old footpath from the Yalley 
of Destruction to the Celestial City has not lost its wayniarks ; 
the wicket-gate stands where it always stood ; and there is no 
other avenue to holiness and salvation. 

I believe, nay more, I know that it is a ministry on this 
spiritual basis which we are establishing to-day in this ancient 
church so rich in hallowed memories. Among the choicest 
reminiscences of my childhood is the benignant countenance of 
the saintly Abbott, — indeed a disciple whom Jesus loved,- — the 
fragrance of whose piety still lingers in the hearts of all who 
knew him, and whose name has never ceased to dwell upon 
your lips as the embodiment of all that you could love in a 
friend and revere in a Christian. Among the happy omens of 
this hour, I cannot forget that he whom you now welcome as 
your spiritual shepherd grew up under the paternal counsel 
and tender regard of the venerable father of the pastor so early 
translated from your altar-service, — a father, in whom the self- 
same cluster of Christian graces, that blossomed in the son's 
brief pilgrimage, hung with rich, ripe fruit through a green 
and, beautiful old age. I can wish you no greater joy, no 
higher blessing, than that the promise of this spiritual affinity 
may be made good. May the benediction of the Most High 
crown the union this day consummated. May its fruit be for 
the heavenly harvest and the garner of redeeming love. 



CHARGE TO THE PASTOR. 



BY REV. JOHN WEISS, OF NEW- BEDFORD. 

It seems at first as if I engaged in a formality in undertak- 
ing to deliver a charge to one whose good perception of the 
spiritual office is so well known to me by a close and peculiar 
intimacy. I have not the benefit of the usual ignorance con- 
cerning the candidate which permits one to recommend freely 
the great, substantial principles that support the pulpit. For, 
as they occur to me, I recollect that they have already been 
the objects of your meditation, and I have even profited by 
your attempts to put them into practice. Let this occasion 
grant me- this very moderate acknowledgement in deference to 
ajl that I remember of an union that was severed too abruptly 
for me and for my people. In delivering this charge I seem 
to Be -sharing again your fears and aspirations, and a year of 
friendship accumulates beneath my words of counsel. "We can 
never feel it is untimely to read those great qualities which filled 
our Savior's ministry with the spirit of redemption. And the best 
charge is the recommendation to imitate his methods. Beneath 
the shadow of his name, words uttered by one mortal to another 
lose their presumption, and bring into the occasion all that it 
needs to connect it with eternity and truth. 

I charge you to preserve through all the infirmities of the 
body and the distinctions of the~ visible life, a conviction that 
the Savior's spirit is the power of your office and the only hope 
of this people. Put that idea into permanent possession of 
your soul. Let it be judge in your conscience, to distinguish 
the ways of man from the ways of redemption : let it be the 
visible star by whose bearings you can at every moment regu- 
late your course. Though God may extend around you, like . 
space itself, infinitely on every side, yet, if you tempt those 
depths, let the eye be guided by that point in heaven where the 
8 



18 



Savior appears, and through his light accustom your soul to 
receive the light of the Father. For though the Father may 
draw you, the course of this attraction lies through Christ : in 
him it was first completely accumulated, and the man who 
earnestly seeks to redeem his soul, will find it true that no man 
cometh to the Father but by him. 

First, I charge you then to imitate the Savior's love of eter- 
nal Truth. From this pulpit look over all the inequalities of 
earth, beyond its smiling and its gloomy tracts, across the 
barriers which the human mind has raised to mark its own 
imperfection, through the dust of war and the gloom of oppres- 
sion, till you can see that which is unchangeably just and true. 
For your Savior did the same. Not a prejudice, nor a habit, 
nor a tradition of the earth turned his eye aside : he eagerly 
penetrated all of them to look upon the perfect ways of God. 
Not willing to keep his sight within easy range to accommodate 
it to intermediate objects, he sent it forth trusting to have it 
filled with the divine proportions. And these he sought to 
establish upon earth, though they cut across and broke up in 
confusion every human convenience. If the perfect equitv of 
God seemed to him more lovely than the customs born of man's 
selfishness and passion, he instantly proclaimed that equity, and 
urged it against injustice, however dear and venerable. It 
seemed to him of no consequence that an error or a half-truth 
was sanctioned: he never once paused to consider that circum- 
stance which seems so imposing to our poor mortality. The 
beauty of God's kingdom had completely rapt his judgment and 
his heart — he had no reason left for earth : if men would not 
believe in what was true, there was no sense in being men, no 
object in a spiritual capacity. "Ye have heard that it hath 
been said," sounded utterly contemptible against his word — 
"but I say unto you." 

I charge you to test all your sentiments by the great princi- 
ples revealed to the Savior in this search for truth. If for 
instance, you incline to think that the salvation of man depends 
upon the unobstructed development of those faculties which fall 
in various degrees to all people by inheritance, remember the 
doctrine of the New Birth — "that which is born of the flesh is 



10 



flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." And 
teach your people that when they have raised to their maximum 
the advantages received from their forefathers, they have merely 
exhausted the impulse of the natural birth : that however amiable 
the results may be, they have yet to undergo a vital revolution 
of every motion in their hearts, and to unseal the spiritual 
faculties which receive impressions from eternity. Teach them 
that the natural man receiveth not the things of God : they are 
foolishness to him, because the first birth has its limitations, 
and the mind itself is a description of them. It is only when 
the soul also is born invisibly that the man can be redeemed- 
And again, if you sometimes feel, in your genial intercourse 
with men, the difficulties which retard the application of any 
moral principle to life, and are disposed to consider them too 
favorably, from contagion and human sympathy, remember 
that these are the difficulties inherent in the natural mind, and 
that you have been elected to this office to proclaim the doc- 
trines of the spiritual mind. If when the Savior said, ' 1 bles- 
sed are they that hunger and thirst after rightousness, " you 
find that his understanding admitted any qualifications, admit 
them also — but not without. If you perceive that he ever 
shrunk from the unconditional strength of that verse — "all 
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them," then you also may shrink — but not without, 
if you desire to preach the everlasting Gospel. Apply these 
principles to every sentiment and emergency ; and let their 
difficulty be a lively illustration to your people that the Second 
Birth is indeed our great necessity and the object of all preach- 
ing. 

These doctrines sleep within cur Bibles ; but if you desire to 
possess them originally and vitally, to feel them born within 
you, I charge you to imitate the Savior's reliance upon the 
Fathers spirit. Seek the Father : not only for strength and 
comfort, not only for the hope which shall make every day 
lightsome to you, but to connect your soul like a channel with 
heaven through which loving truth shall flow. Take the im- 
pressions you derive from men and books, and carry them 
directly to the presence of the Father, to be judged, and saved 



20 



or lost. Believe, with the Savior, that God heareth you 
always — and that He flows into you. not with vague, emotional 
impressions, nor with snatches of good cheer, but with the 
substance of His wisdom, with distinct expressions of His will, 
with vindications of the Savior's truth. Let the devoutness of 
the Savior guide your soul into a sweet companionship with the 
Holy Spirit. 

My friend, how soon the calamities and sorrows of this people 
will begin to make their appeal to you. Your search for truth 
will be interrupted by the breaking heart that feels nature and 
reason desert it, terrified at its pain. Human tears will stream 
more freely at your coming — human voices will ask you for 
immortality, for the relief of heaven: even those who refuse to 
be comforted will yet yearn to have you plant a flower in the 
midst of their desolation. Then let the graves which must 
hereafter belong to your people, lift you above them to teach 
them, that your faith may triumph on the spot of their sorrow, 
and that the dawn of God's comfort may be visible upon your 
heart. You remember how often we conversed upon that office 
of consolation which death counsels us to assume, and it i 
appeared to us impossible to send one ray of light into the 
darkened chamber, unless the lips spake, with irresistible con- 
viction and the smile of our whole sincerity, the name of God. 
Let me renew the sense of those reflections. I charge you to 
interrupt their sorrow with the name of the living God ; to 
bring a consciousness of His presence into their dwellings; to 
fill the vacancy with that Person, whose hand touches more 
potently than death, whose invisible whisper sends the truth of 
immortality through all our veins, searching out our griefs. 
If it seems to you sufficient to possess the ever-present God, it 
will seem to them a sufficient consolation. And in all their 
fortunes, let the attitude of your spirit be such that a sense of 
a very near and personal Father shall prevail. Pursue the 
hearts of the timid and inconstant with the name of God. 

And now, my friend, with great hopes w T hich the past will 
amply justify, let me commend you to the service of the 
Father. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
you and your people free. 



RIGHT HAND OF FELLOWSHIP. 



BY REV. DEXTER CLAPP, OF SALEM. 

There was no need, My Brother, of any formal and public 
service to convince you of my own cordial welcome, now that 
you stand again before the altar and take up once more the 
Ministry of Christ. I rejoice in your renewed consecration to 
it. After an interval of rest and travel and study you come 
back to us, not alienated from your chosen calling but furnish- 
ed for it by new experience and deeper faith, anxious to enter 
on its labors, willing to accept its trials. 

"The church rejoices to see you here and in token of its ready 
fellowship, I give you this right-hand. I give it to you not 
merely as an expression of personal feeling but as a symbol of 
the divine harmony which, through the reconciling power of 
Christ, is yet to join all men's hearts. If we meet in the high 
sense of the gospel, our communion is beyond any individual 
friendship, it is the union of immortal affections, the spirit of 
Jesus lingering always in the church and now united unto 
yours. 

Through me the church sends you its greeting. Not my 
church, nor any single ecclesiastical connection, nor a sum- 
moned council merely, but the church catholic, invisible, 
undivided, greets you on the threshold of your new ministry. 
I gladly pledge the great fellowship and take you into the 
great communion. The days of Theological difference and 
separation seem drawing to a close. Controversial zeal and 
practical godliness are regarded as spiritual synonyms no 
more. Love of the heart takes precedence over belief of the 
intellect. Religious truths, like the Divine incarnation and 
human regeneration, are seen to be the central doctrines of 
Christianity, to lie at the base of all Christian theory and 
character. In these we are beginning to find the vitality and 
love by which the souls of men are inspired and attracted 



22 



together. Whoever comes into sympathy with these truths is 
drawn into the brotherhood of the redeemed, into the church of 
the first-born whose names are written in Heaven. 

-Because I believe there is this new and vital faith abroad 
and spreading in our Christian community, and beyond us in 
the wide world, I venture to greet you to-day with so large 
a welcome. All the true religion of our city welcomes you 
here, into the midst of its cares and toils and temptation. It 
comes up to this house and welcomes all the true religion there 
is in you. 

On so generous a platform of Christian fellowship, I am 
glad, My Brother, to meet you in this pulpit, to stand up with 
you at the very beginning of your work ; for I mean to stand 
with you through the changes that shall pass over us both. I 
mean to stand with you till my work or yours shall here 
be ended. 

Greeting you so hopefully now. I forget none of the peculiar 
trials that come inevitably to the faithful minister. I would 
not put them out of sight. I would not keep them off. Your 
brave Christian heart will never ask to be shielded from them. 
As they come one by one, you know what to do. You have 
read the Beatitudes, and followed Christ aside into the garden, 
and on to the Mount of Crucifixion, you know the weight of 
the cross, and that sometime in life you will be called to bear 
it. You have not learned to fear or to shrink, but to pray, and 
you know that God giveth strength. 

Strange therefore as it may seem, I bid you welcome to the 
trials of your lot. They will serve to give steadiness to your 
steps. They will brace your spirit like the clear frosts of 
winter. I do not believe that their burden will ever weigh you 
down ; that their chill will ever reach your heart. The world 
is always wanting new proof that its great exposures and 
temptations can be resisted and passed without hindering the 
soul's progress or interrupting its happiness. Trusting that 
you are strong and believing enough to bear such evidence, to 
show in your own life that evil can be conquered, that faith in 
God can make the weakest heart valiant, I welcome you to 



23 



the office of the ministry, to the homes where trouble comes, to 
the minds that are clouded with doubt, to the hearts that are 
heavy with grief. 

Knowing the responsibility that rests on this pulpit and the 
demand that a cultivated congregation makes upon it, I still 
welcome you to it. The message of the Divine Gospel is 
needed here, and I believe that you will bear it. In the 
simplicity of Christ, I believe that you will preach it, and not 
with the cunning wisdom of man. You will preach it as the 
word of authority, and therefore the word of power. You will 
preach it fearlessly, regardless of the favor or frown of men. 
Truth that flows out of a pure and believing heart, through, 
sanctified affections, will be sure to win its way, disarm criti- 
cism, soften prejudice and redeem the soul. 

I welcome you to the pleasant fire-sides of the families now 
given into your charge, and waiting for your counsel and 
sympathy. As you go from house to house, I feel that you 
will show how deeply you have drunk of the Master's spirit, 
and that you will pass no joy, and no sorrow by* 

But, my Brother, you have been welcomed already to this 
great office of the Ministry, and you know something of its 
cares and blessings. It is for me simply to bid you welcome 
into this new field, only another portion of the Master's vine- 
yard. The church of Salem runs back in its history to the first 
planting of the colony. It is fragrant with memories of Francis 
Higginson, of Roger Williams and Hugh Peters, and where they 
sowed, you are called to reap. Sainted names also are on the 
roll of this particular church, which is given unto your hands 
to-day. And Exeter has sent up before, a young man of holy 
promise, in all the beauty and purity of early life, to guide and 
guard this same people. His memorial is written, not only on 
the tablet of stone, but on fleshly hearts, which will keep it 
fresh when the marble has crumbled into dust. God grant 
that the flavor of your piety here, the whole temper of your 
Ministry, may be like his — like the sainted Abbot's, in all 
things save its brevity ! And may your memorial be written 
on human hearts that live forever ! 



ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. 



BY REV. E. S. GANNETT, D. D. 

The usages of an Ordination or Installation service fasten 
attention on the person who is inducted into the minis- 
terial office, and one who did not understand the theory 
of our ecclesiastical institutions might think that the whole 
design of the service was, to secure from the future min- 
ister an intelligent and faithful performance of his work. This, 
however, should not be its whole design : nor is it according to 
the genius of our church polity, to give the incumbent of the 
pulpit a prominence that should throw the congregation to an 
obscure distance. The legal contract recognized in the solem- 
nities of this occasion is not the only ground on which we may 
assume that there are two parties equally interested and mutu- 
ally pledged. The spiritual connection which it is the real 
purpose of these solemnities to bring into view, is also recipro- 
cal ; neither its privileges nor its obligations lying wholly, or 
chiefly, on one side. There is then a manifest propriety, if a 
portion of the Installation services be addressed to one of the 
two parties, that the other party should be the subject of an 
equally direct address. If the minister should receive congrat- 
ulation that he has found a field of usefulness and a happy 
home, why not the people, that they have found a wise teacher 
and close friend ; if he be charged to be faithful to them, why 
not they to be faithful to him ? It would be a strange mar- 
riage covenant in which but one of the parties was presumed to 
have an active interest ; why should the ecclesiastical union be 
regarded as less impartial in its distribution of duties 1 

Not only the proprieties but the requisitions of this hour 
seem therefore to be consulted, when we offer you, christian 



Friends, our congratulations. We who have come hither by 
your request to speak words of friendly counsel and cordial 
sympathy to our brother in your hearing, cannot go away with- 
out saluting you in his presence. Before him we say that you 
are a fortunate people, and we rejoice with you in the circum- 
stances which justify that term. We are glad for your sake, 
that when you were obliged to look around for one who should 
be a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ to your souls, the Prov- 
idence that is ever mindful of our wants placed within your 
view him on whom your choice has fallen : who brings to your 
service the enthusiasm of early life, chastened, but not chilled, 
by professional experience, and the discipline of a scholastic 
youth, ripened by foreign travel, and. what is better yet, a 
self-consecration rendered only the more sure by the tests at 
home and abroad to which it has been subjected. We are glad 
for our own sake, that one in whose integrity of purpose we 
place entire confidence, while of his various qualifications for 
the work before him we have ample proof, will be again a fel- 
low-laborer with us, aiding us by his example and animating 
us by his success. We congratulate you as individuals, as 
members of this society, and as inhabitants of this city, on the 
acquisition of such a preacher, pastor and friend, as we now 
commend to your steadfast regard. 

That regard, brethren, you will be called to show in various 
ways. Yet all that need be said in charging you to be faithful 
in the relation into which you have voluntarily entered, is 
suggested by a single word, co-operation. You have some 
independent duties, or rather one, which it falls to you alone to be 
active : and if I thought you would be neglectful of this duty, 
I should remind you that self-interest, not less than honor 
and honesty, is concerned in its fulfilment : for a minister who 
through the niggardliness or carelessness of his people is left to 
the anxieties of an inadequate support, is crippled in his intel- 
lectual and moral resources. But we need not fear that you 
will let a want of care in this respect throw embarrassment in 
the way of a sincere and devoted minister. It is of the concur- 
rence of your efibrts with his that I would speak. 

To such concurrence a common understanding of the purpose 
4 



20 



of the ministry is indispensable : for : ; how can two walk to- 
gether, except they be agreed?" If you entertain an unworthy 
conception of the end which the Christian minister should pre- 
sent to his own mind, your error will be a continual hindrance 
to his success. He is not a mere guardian of existing institu- 
tions, or an official representative of accredited truths. He is 
not a functionary, who discharges his duty by conducting a 
routine of established exercises, nor a policeman under the dis- 
guise of a clerical title. His work is not simple prevention, nor 
is it external and superficial. The minister of Christ directs his 
labor upon the unseen consciousness, and the delicate yet im- 
perishable tissue of character. It is his business to make men 
what they ought to be, in heart and life, in affection and will. 
This result he can approach only with their consent : and this 
consent will not be given so long as they see in him only a 
priest who publicly offers the sacrifice of worship on their be- 
half, or brings the solace of religion to their homes when grief 
calls for something that this world cannot give. Behind your 
apprehension of the nature of the minister's work, and as deter- 
mining that apprehension, lies your judgment concerning Chris- 
tianity itself. If you see in the gospel of God's grace only a 
device for elevating the present conditition of men or for extir- 
pating certain social evils, you will both misconstrue and 
undervalue, and in the end defeat, our friend's intention towards 
you. Unless you regard the gospel as a divine agency for 
quickening and redeeming and sanctifying the interior life, for 
making every one who shall come under its operation penitent 
and holy, you can have no true sympathy with him who is set 
apart for the gospel's sake among you. The very first thing, 
therefore, which the solemnities of this day demand of you is, 
that you believe in Christianity as a gift from God for your 
spiritual renewal and perfection. 

Having settled this as the basis of co-operation with your 
minister, you will be prepared to concur with him in his en- 
deavor to use the divinely bestowed forces of Christianity for 
your benefit. I will not affront your intelligence by intimating 
that you may possibly harbour the notion that he alone is en- 
trusted with the care of these forces. No thoughtful person, Pro- 



testant or Catholic, can believe that a religious choice or heav- 
enly hope may be wrought out for him by some other action than 
his own. If your minister should have the energy and zeal of 
a Paul, he could not with the utmost diligence make you " par- 
takers of Christ' 1 ; for the human soul is neither clay that can 
be moulded, nor iron that can be hammered into shape at 
another's will. The probability is, not that you will overrate, 
but that you will hold in too low an estimation, the efficiency 
of the ministerial office. One direction of thought in our reli- 
gious societies is towards a skepticism in regard to the value of 
the clerical functions, and some who assist in supporting the 
institutions of the Church appear to uphold them rather as 
ornaments of civilization, than as means of personal advantage. 
As I understand your action in the present case, you are 
precluded from offering such an appreciation as a reason for not 
taking an interest in the future labors of your minister. You 
are not left free, as consistent and upright men, after having 
called our brother here, to say to him, by your neglect of his 
services, that you do not think you need them. You do need 
them, and disregard of them will be the surest proof you can 
give of your need. Frail and sinful man needs all the help he 
can get in fortifying himself against the temptations of the 
flesh and the world. 

You are bound, Christian friends, by your wants, by your 
position, and by your acts, to an earnest co-operation with your 
minister in the purposes to which he has devoted himself; a 
cooperation which you can exhibit first in this house, by your 
presence, — surely not by your absence, — and by a candid 
reception of what you shall hear from this pulpit. Come to 
the "meeting-house." We have dropped this good old New 
England word, as if we were afraid of the sarcasm it sometimes 
covers. Come in pleasant weather, and come in dull weather. 
Be ashamed to stay away for a reason which you would not 
presume to offer for not going out to your secular business on 
the next morning. Do not so arrange your bodily indisposi- 
tions, that the physician shall be your adviser on Sunday, 
rather than the minister. And when you come hither, come 
neither to admire nor to criticise, but to open your hearts to 



'2b 



the influences that may disinthrall you from the consciousness 
of sin. 

Especially let me remind you of the obligation of a right 
j)Osture of the soul towards that part of the services of this 
place, which the hearers (unfortunate term) are apt to con- 
sider as claiming only a passive attention from them. It is the 
minister's office to guide the prayers of the congregation, not 
to make a prayer in their stead. It is a profane abuse of 
language for him to say before Almighty God, — u We praise 
thee, we thank thee, we confess our sins and implore forgiv- 
ness," if he be the only worshipper. The people must pray 
with him, pouring their thoughts and emotions into the chan- 
nel of his language. Your minister may intercede for you in 
his closet, but here your souls must rise with his to the throne 
and the mercy-seat. 

In regard to the preaching, brethren, let me caution you 
against undervaluing it on the one hand, and making unrea- 
sonable demands of excellence on the other. It is thought 
by many persons, that the multiplication of books and the 
introduction of popular lectures have stripped the pulpit of a 
part of its former importance. But I believe that the pulpit 
was never more needed than now, — needed to fill a place 
which literature and the entertainment or instruction of the 
Lyceum show themselves unable to supply. It was never 
more necessary that the sermon should exert an influence, and 
have a character, of its own. If there be danger that the 
people will be satisfied with what they may get elsewhere, it is 
more than ever important that they should receive direct 
religious instruction. To discard the sermon now, wdien socie- 
ty is full of other agencies and men's minds are solicited 
by various excitement, is like neglecting both rudder and 
compass, when the ship has all her sails spread with a stiff 
breeze and a rough sea. 

Yet it should not be forgotten that the sermon is a human 
production, and therefore may be expected to partake of the 
imperfection of its author. To complain that a minister does 
not give each week a discourse with which no one can find 
fault, is utterly unreasonable. That he should ever produce 



29 



such a work might more justly awaken astonishment. No 
sermon can suit every one's taste, or meet every one's exi- 
gency, or express a coincidence with every one's opinion. 
Preaching that pleased every one would be likely to do no one 
much good. Old George Herbert's doctrine may require some 
qualification, but there is substantial justice in what he says, 
when, after describing the discourses of the pulpit as viands of 
different kinds which the preacher sets before his hearers, he 
deprecates the indulgence of a fastidious appetite, and expres- 
ses his own purpose to receive whatever may be offered him. 

" Here will I wait then, till I see 
The steward reaching out a mess for me — 

Resolve I'll take it thankfully, 
Whate'er it be, and feed on't heartily. 

Although no Benjamin's choice mess, 
Five times as much as others, hut far less ; 
Yea, if 't be but a basket full of crumbs, 
I'll bless the hand from which, by which, it comes. 

" So that the meat be wholesome, though 
The sauce shall not be toothsome, I'll not go 

Empty away, and starve my soul, 
To feed my foolish fancy ; but control 

My appetite to dainty things, 
Which oft, instead of strength, diseases brings." 

You have requested our friend to become your pastor as 
well as your preacher. A pastor is a shepherd. It is a shep- 
herd's business to provide food and shelter for his flock, and 
especially, if any one of them wander off, to go after it and 
bring it back. Oversight is his peculiar duty. When Paul 
parted from the elders of the Ephesian church, he charged 
them " to take heed to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit 
had made them overseers," and Peter, writing to the believers 
in Asia, exhorts the elders among them, " to feed the flock of 
God, taking the oversight thereof." Do not then be offended 
if your minister looks after you. It is what he ought to do. 
Let him have free access to your homes, and to your minds. 
Hide not from him your religious doubts and fears, your 



30 



spiritual perplexities and wants; but encourage 'him to ap- 
proach you with the question that may probe, as well as with 
the sympathy that may relieve your distress. Unless I mis- 
take the habits that prevail among us, there is not only much 
less of religious conversation than there should be in our 
families and in general society, but also between the minister 
and his people. It is not right to lay the blame on him, if 
they never introduce such conversation themselves, and when 
he makes the attempt, refuse to bear their part. He may 
preach or lecture in their dwellings, but so long as they 
maintain a respectful silence, there can be no conversation. 

While we entreat you to welcome the pastoral visits of your 
minister, we counsel you not to run into the extreme of making 
improper demands on his time. Leave to him the distribution 
of his hours ; and if he should appropriate a large part of the 
day to study, instead of imagining that he neglects you, take 
this as a proof of his desire to bring to your houses a well-furn- 
ished mind, and to your pulpit carefully prepared discourses. 
Let him study. He is not a piece of mechanism that needs 
only to be wound up once a week, nor a prophet whose words 
flow out of the fulness of his inspiration ; but a man, who must 
think much and read much, if he would meet the requisitions 
on the ministry at the present day. Do not attempt to control 
his personal habits, nor be curious about his domestic arrange- 
ments. Do not pet him, and do not worry him ; it would be 
hard to say, which is the worse treatment of the two for a min- 
ister to receive from his people. By the one course you may 
kill him, and by the other you may spoil him ; but by neither 
will you make him an able expounder of Divine truth. That 
he must become by his own effort, by self-discipline, by study 
and by prayer. 

Once more, there is an indirect co-operation with your pastor 
and teacher, which for his sake and for your own you ought 
not to neglect. The evidence he may have of his usefulness 
among you must be drawn from your personal histories. Those 
histories will be such as shall satisfy him of the value of his 
influence over you, only when the purpose and endeavor of your 
souls take hold on Christian excellence. In this way alone can 



31 



you reward his labors on your behalf, or secure your own high- 
est good. You must be spiritually minded believers, showing 
your faith by your works. I may crave your indulgence for 
but one remark in illustration of this branch of your duty. 

The times in which we live are marked by two characteris- 
tics which, while they increase both the importance and the diffi- 
culty of the Christian ministry, make it more imperative than 
ever upon each member of the community that he work out his 
own salvation with a strenuous solicitude. These characteris- 
tics are seen in the instability and the excitement to which no 
one can be blind. Fickleness and force are strangely combined 
in the aspect of the period. Men change their opinions and 
their pursuits, their residences and their connections, political, 
social and religious, almost as easily as they change their dress. 
That counsel of the apostle, in which he exhorts the Corinthian 
Christians to be ''steadfast, immoveable," has gone into disre- 
pute ; and the consequence is, that the Christian world of our 
day l ' abounds" less than it might " in the work of the Lord." 
At the same time the people are exposed to influences that 
stimulate their powers to an unhealthy degree, and keep their 
minds in a state of high tension. The progress of science, new 
inventions in the arts, increased facilities of communication, and 
discoveries of inexhaustible mineral wealth, are causing an un- 
parallelled development of human energies. But not in the 
direction of spiritual perfection. The tendency, the temper, the 
circumstances of the time, are not such as make men holy. 
An intense worldliness is becoming, has become the atmosphere 
which is breathed from the cradle to the grave. The institu- 
tions of the country make this effect most perceptible and most 
fearful here, — in every part of our land, but chiefly in the cities 
which lie upon the seaboard or on the great lines of our internal 
commerce. Is it not harder to be heavenly minded or tho- 
roughly Christian under such circumstances, than it was in 
the last generation? Yet it is just as necessary that men 
should be followers of Christ now, as then. It is just as 
true now as it was in the Apostles' day, that "without 
holiness no one shall see the Lord." Well then — and this 
is what I would urge — we need the Christian ministry and 



32 



the religious institutions which the fathers have left us, and. 
above all, personal sanctification through obedience to the 
truth, as much, naj more than they were ever needed by any 
people on this earth. We, in this age of progress, and in this 
land whose prosperity out-travels the calculation of the most 
sanguine, we need the Bible and the Gospel, the church and 
the Christian sabbath, the altar and the closet, the cross of the 
[Redeemer and the vision of immortality. Alas for the people 
of this Republic, if they let go their hold on ' : the things which 
concern their everlasting peace" ! Duty or destruction, heaven 
or hell, is the alternative before every one of us. Death or 
life, — choose ye amidst the solemnities of this day which you 
will take : make the right choice, and if you care for your 
country or for your own well-being, abide by that choice, cost 
what it may — wealth, ease, success, any thing and every thing 
but character and hope — cost what it may, abide by the choice. 

Christian friends, if there be a place in all our fair land, 
ay in all our world, where Christian institutions should be 
rightly understood and faithfully used, this is the place; — this 
city, where the gospel of Christ imprinted almost its first 
foot-step on our shores, — this house, where for generations the 
worship of God through Jesus Christ has been maintained by 
men of culture and of faith, by the thronging presence which 
has filled these seats, by the children who while they departed 
from the symbolic language of their fathers, clung to the 
methods of spiritual improvement which their fathers had 
transmitted. May these walls always enclose a devout and 
earnest congregation, and he who now stands in this pulpit 
rejoice in the proof which their cooperation shall give, that he is 
not spending his strength on inaccessible minds or world-hard- 
ened hearts. God bless the union this day consecrated by 
holy prayer and Christian counsel ! In his good providence, 
may it long continue, and in the experiences of another life 
may they who shall have labored together here find a common 
recompense of glory ! 



ORDER OF SERVICES 



AT THE INSTALLATION OF REV. CHARLES LOWE, AS PASTOR 
OF THE NORTH CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN SALEM. 
September 27, 1855. 

I. Anthem. — "I will praise Thee." 

II. INVOCATION AND SELECTIONS FROM SCRIPTURE. — Rev. James W. 

Thompson, J). D. 

III. Hymn. — ( Selected. ) 
I. 

Lift aloud the voice of praise ! 

God, our Father and our Friend ; 
Hear the prayer and song we raise, 

Weak, yet trusting, we would bend, 
2. 

Lo ! another servant brought 

To the heritage of God ; — 
May he teach as Christ hath taught, 

Tread the path his Saviour trod. 
3. 

To the vineyard may he come, 

Girded with celestial might ; 
Skilled to draw thy children home, 

Taught to give the darkened light. 
4. 

Unto Thee a people bend, — 

Bind us heart to heart in love ; 
Flock and pastor, we would tend 

Ever toward our home above. 

IV. Sermon. — Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D. 



V. Prayer of Installation. — Rev. Calvin Lincoln. 

5 



34 



VI. Original Hymn. — By Rev, Charles T. Brooki. 
1. 

Great God ! within these temple gates 
To-day a reverent people waits 
To hear Thy voice, to see Thy face, 
And feel Thine all-enlivening grace. 

2. 

For here, of old, Thy name was named, 
Thy truth, of old, was here proclaimed, 
Here swelled the song of praise and trust 
From lips now mouldering in the dust. 
3. 

What sainted forms, this hour draw near, 
To calm, to strengthen and to cheer ! 
Their words of counsel and of prayer 
Still haunt the hushed and hallowed air. 
4. 

Where once they stood, Thy servant stands 
With girded loins and waiting hands ; 
0, give him strength, Almighty Lord! 
To do Thy will and speak Thy word. 
5. 

Give him the burning love of truth 
And wisdom's ever-blooning youth ; 
The tender heart, the faithful tongue, 
The quickening word for old and young. 
6. 

Lord ! on this ancient church of Thine 
Still let Thy face benignant shine, 
And more and more, as years roll by, 
May souls be ripening for the sky ! 

VH. Charge to the Pastor. — Rev. John Weiss. 
VIII. Right Hand of Fellowship. — Rev. Dexter Clapp. 
IX. Music. — "Oh how lovely is Zion. 
X. Address to the People. — Rev. E. S. Gannett, D. D. 
XI. Prayer. — Rev. George. W. Briggs, D. D. 

XII. Music. — Sanctus and Hozanna. 

XIII. Benediction. — By the Pastor. 



MINISTERS OF THE NORTH SOCIETY IN SALEM, 
From 1773 to 1855. 



■o- 



The First Pastor was Rev. Thomas Barnard, D. D. Ordained 
January 13, 1773. Died October 1, 1814, aged 67 years. 

Second. Rev. John Emery Abbott. Ordained April 20, 1815. Ser- 
mon by Rev. Wm. E. Channing, of Boston. Mr. Abbott died at 
Exeter, N. H., November 14, 1820, aged 26 years. 

Third. Rev. John Brazer, D. D. Ordained November 14, 1820. 
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Kirkland, President of Harvard University. Dr. 
Brazer died at Charleston, S. C, February 27, 1846. 

Fourth. Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham. Ordained March 10, 1847. 
Sermon by his father, Rev. Dr. FrGthingham, of Boston. Mr. 
Frothingham resigned April 30, 1855. 

Fifth. Rev. Charles Lowe. Installed September 27, 1855. Sermon 
by Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., of Portsmouth, N. H. 



The North Church was formed from the First Church in 1772, 
and a new Meeting House erected the same year, — which was 
occupied by the Society till 1835, when they built a new stone 
Church on Essex Street, which was dedicated June 22, 1836. Ser- 
mon on the occasion by Rev. Dr. Brazer, the pastor. 



